Good Examples Of What Max Nordau Calls Echolalie Are To Be Found In This Biography (P. 22).] Even The Founder

Of the flying monk's order, the great Francis of Assisi, has been accused of some strange-sounding mental disorder because,

With touching humility, he doffed his vestments and presented himself naked before his Creator. What are we to conclude therefrom?

The flying monk resembles Saint Francis in more than one feature. He, too, removed his clothes and even his shirt, and exposed himself thus to a crucifix, exclaiming, "Here I am, Lord, deprived of everything." He followed his prototype, further, in that charming custom of introducing the animal world into his ordinary talk ("Brother Wolf, Sister Swallow," etc.). So Joseph used to speak of himself as l'asinelio - the little ass; and a pathetic scene was witnessed on his death-bed when he was heard to mutter: "L'asinelio begins to climb the mountain; l'asinelio is half-way up; l'asinelio has reached the summit; l'asinelio can go no further, and is about to leave his skin behind."

It is to be noted, in this connection, that Saint Joseph of Coper-tino was born in a stable.

This looks like more than a mere coincidence. For the divine Saint Francis was likewise born in a stable.

But why should either of these holy men be born in stables?

A reasonable explanation lies at hand. A certain Japanese statesman is credited with that shrewd remark that the manifold excellencies and diversities of Hellenic art are due to the fact that the Greeks had no "old masters" to copy from - no "schools" which supplied their imagination with ready-made models that limit and smother individual initiative.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 110 of 488
Words from 29229 to 29509 of 131203